Brief Survey of the Affinities aud History of the Cyi)riau Flora 337 



ancient authors have not mentioned this conspicuous tree, it would notwithstandintr be bold to infer fVom 

 this circumstance that the tree did not in Antiquity grow on the island. 



As an instance of a plant, the immigration of which has taken place at a far later period, 

 Ojruntia Ficiis indica must be mentioned; originally introduced from America, it is in the present time 

 widely spread in the lower tracts of Cyprus, as well as in those of most other Mediterranean countries. 

 Of other species, which have evidently immigrated at a very late period, Oxalis cernua and Einhb'mm 

 angustifolium may be mentioned (compare pp. 117, 230 and 320). Most likely both these species have 

 immigrated in the course of the 19th century; at present they spread rapidly from year to year. 



The history of the Cyprian flora can, in the present day, be written only biiefly and summarily. 

 In order to understand better the development of the flora in the course of past ages, we want more 

 minute investigations of the flora of the island itself and of that of the neighboui'ing counti-ies than are 

 yet at hand, and also a fuller knowledge of the geological history of the Mediterranean countries through 

 the Tertiary and Quarternary periods. 



